The virgin land of quality management: a first measure of patient safety climate at the National Hospital of the Faroe Islands

Figures & data

Table 1 SAQ-DK respondent characteristics according to demography among health care staff of the National Hospitals of the Faroe Islands (N=367)

Demography	N	%
Sex
Female	325	88.6
Male	42	11.4
Age (years)
<36	61	16.6
36–45	112	30.5
46–55	95	25.9
≥56	99	27.0
Profession
Nurses	178	48.5
Nursing assistants and similar	40	10.9
Doctors	32	8.7
Therapistsa	28	7.6
Midwifes	4	1.1
Allied clinical support staff b	23	6.3
Administrative staff and social workersc	46	12.5
Service assistants, hospital porters, and technical staffc	9	2.5
Others	7	1.9
Organizational role
Clinical leader	50	13.6
Frontline clinician	317	86.4

Notes:

a Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, music therapists, psychologists;

b medical laboratory technicians, pharmacologists, pharmacists, radiologists, dieticians;

c nonclinical staff. Results in this table were generated by the use of IBM-SPSS version 21.0 (SPSS, IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA).

Abbreviation: SAQ-DK, Danish version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire.

Table 2 Dimensional patient safety culture results showing proportions of missing answers, proportions of staff with positive attitudes, mean scale statistics (N=367 responders), and variability across units in SAQ-DK dimensional scores (N=28 units)

Dimension	%-missinga	%-positiveb	Min–maxc	P-valued	Mean (SD)e	Rangef	P-valueg
Teamwork climate	4.0	63.5	20.0–100.0	<0.01	74.4 (19.5)	60.3–89.6	<0.01
Safety climate	3.3	28.9	0.0–100.0	<0.05	60.9 (20.2)	48.9–83.5	<0.01
Job satisfaction	0.3	71.1	16.7–100.0	<0.01	78.7 (20.6)	50.0–95.0	<0.01
Stress recognition	6.7	55.9	0.0–83.3	0.379	69.3 (23.4)	53.1–81.3	<0.01
Perceptions of unit mgmt	9.0	36.2	0.0–85.7	<0.01	62.3 (23.8)	30.6–85.1	<0.01
Perceptions of center mgmt	9.7	19.3	0.0–50.0	<0.05	51.5 (23.6)	20.1–71.7	<0.01
Perceptions of top mgmt	10.1	12.8	0.0–46.2	<0.05	47.6 (21.7)	18.8–65.3	<0.01
Working conditions	5.4	37.6	0.0–71.4	<0.01	60.1 (25.4)	40.4–87.5	<0.01

Notes:

a Proportion of answers to all items in a scale given as “not applicable”.

b Proportion of responders with positive attitudes, N=367 responders.

c Variation in %-positive across in- and outpatients units, N=28 units.

d Chi-square test comparing %-positive across in- and outpatient units, N=28 units.

e Mean scale scores, N=367 responders.

F Range in mean across in- and outpatient units, N=28.

g ANOVA testing for unit variability in means, N=28 units. Results in this table were generated by the use of IBM-SPSS version 21.0 (SPSS, IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA).

Abbreviations: ANOVA, analysis of variance; mgmt, management; %-positive, proportion of staff with a positive attitude; SAQ-DK, the Danish version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire; SD, standard deviation.

Table 3 Dimensional SAQ-DK result showing the proportions of staff with positive attitudes (%-positive) and means for each of the five specialized centers; and comparison of the scores across the centers for all eight dimensions

Dimension	Surgical center N=76 %-positive; mean (SD)	Psychiatric center N=93 %-positive; mean (SD)	Diagnostic center N=34 %-positive; mean (SD)	Medical center N=110 %-positive; mean (SD)	Acute care center N=39 %-positive; mean (SD)	Comparing the scores of the five medical centers
						%-positivea χ^2; (df); P-value	Meansb F-value; (df); P-value
Teamwork climate	69.7; 75.3 (17.1)	60.2; 73.2 (21.0)	79.4; 82.2 (16.4)	56.4; 70.7 (21.8)	65.0; 76.7 (13.9)	7.87; (4); 0.10	2.63; (4); 0.03
Safety climate	25.0; 60.9 (16.2)	22.6; 58.9 (20.4)	44.1; 70.9 (18.5)	30.9; 59.3 (22.1)	27.5; 59.8 (19.3)	6.48; (4); 0.17	2.61; (4); 0.04
Job satisfaction	73.7; 80.1 (18.6)	64.5; 73.2 (22.7)	82.4; 86.0 (20.9)	68.2; 77.6 (21.1)	77.5; 83.3 (15.2)	5.51; (4); 0.24	3.47; (4); <0.01
Stress recognition	57.9; 69.2 (24.3)	57.0; 68.5 (23.7)	61.8; 65.4 (30.3)	57.3; 72.6 (19.2)	42.5; 63.8 (26.3)	3.64; (4); 0.46	1.32; (4); 0.26
Perceptions of unit mgmt	26.3; 56.7 (24.8)	41.9; 64.5 (24.1)	55.9; 70.5 (25.0)	30.9; 56.4 (22.9)	32.5; 64.6 (20.9)	11.83; (4); 0.02	2.72; (4); 0.03
Perceptions of center mgmt	10.5; 47.6 (19.8)	25.8; 59.7 (22.1)	38.2; 60.8 (27.0)	11.8; 41.8 (23.7)	22.5; 56.2 (20.4)	18.54; (4); <0.01	10.63; (4); <0.01
Perceptions of top mgmt	6.6; 45.9 (17.6)	17.2; 54.5 (19.9)	26.5; 53.9 (24.9)	4.5; 37.7 (20.6)	12.5; 49.9 (21.4)	17.75; (4); <0.01	10.12; (4); <0.01
Working conditions	43.4; 59.7 (24.5)	28.0; 54.3 (27.1)	55.9; 66.7 (26.1)	35.5; 62.3 (22.9)	30.0; 56.7 (28.4)	10.78; (4); 0.03	2.11; (4); 0.08

Notes:

a Chi-square test comparing %-positive across medical specialties’, N=5 centers.

b ANOVA for each culture dimension with significance testing for center variability in means. Results in this table were generated by the use of IBM-SPSS version 21.0 (SPSS, IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA).

Abbreviations: ANOVA, analysis of variance; mgmt, management; %-positive, proportion of staff holding a positive attitude; SAQ-DK, the Danish version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire; SD, standard deviation.

Figure 1 Distribution of proportions of clinical leaders and frontline staff with positive attitudes toward dimensional patient safety culture.

Notes: *Significant difference between the clinical leaders and the frontline staff using chi-square test, P<0.05. Results in this figure were generated by the use of IBM-SPSS version 21.0 (SPSS, IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA) and Windows Excel 2016.
Abbreviation: %-positive, proportion of staff with a positive attitude.

Figure 2 The degree to which (mean scale score) the clinical leaders and the frontline staff perceived dimensional patient safety culture positive.

Notes: *Significant difference in scale means between the clinical leaders and the frontline staff using independent t-test, P<0.05. Results in this figure were generated by the use of IBM-SPSS version 21.0 (SPSS, IBM Corporation, Armonk, NY, USA) and Windows Excel 2016.
Abbreviation: %-positive, proportion of staff with a positive attitude.